Chapter 5

“Monalisa…” a male voice called out to her, startling and making her turn around immediately too to see who had called her name.

“Bret…” Monalisa muttered, sounding a little out of breath because of how frightened she was a moment ago and surprised to see him standing in front of her like this.  He had also called her name which was awkward to her because he normally would not have called her name and wondered why he did. 

"Sorry Monalisa, I frightened you," Bret said apologetically, seeing the fright in her face.

"What?" Monalisa muttered again and this time glanced around her, wondering what was going on at this moment and why Bret was talking to her and so politely too. No one was polite to her before and that includes Bret, in fact he has never spoken to her before, not that he has any reason to, he was way above her class. Bret is the son of one of Aunt Lila’s wealthy friends, who often visits the house with his clique of friends and sometimes drops by alone to see Annabel who was also his friend only she does not know the exact relationship they shared.

"I know that you are surprised that I am talking to you," Bret said, guessing her feeling right now and knew that she was right to feel that way.

“Wait a minute?” Monalisa muttered, the scary stories flooding her memories again as she entertained an awkward thought about Bret, especially since he suddenly just came to be here.

“What is it?” Bret asked, taking note of the sudden change of mood again, wondering what she was thinking at the moment.

“Which one are you?” Monalisa asked, taking a step backwards away from Bret, who peered at her, wondering what was going on with her.

“Excuse me?” he asked, glancing behind him to check if she was seeing something he was not but found nothing, he turned his gaze to her again, his brow lifted a little as he peered at her and hoping that she speak up instead of having the frightful look on her face as she stared at him. “What is it, Monalisa?” he asked again, gesturing for her to speak.

“What are you? A vampire… werewolf or a witch?” Monalisa muttered but enough for him to hear her, taking another step backwards, recalling that people are of the opinion that they live among them and no one knows their identity.

“What?” Bret asked, surprised by her question and almost immediately he started laughing but stopped himself immediately again, lifting his hand to cover his mouth as he glanced behind him knowing that Lila could hear him. “Do not be ridiculous Monalisa, me, a vampire… werewolf or a witch?” he asked again and chuckled at the same time, he did not imagine that talking to her could make him laugh like this especially since he has never spoken to her.

“Yes…” Monalisa muttered again, shrugging her shoulders a little bit and wondered why he was laughing, still finding it surprising that he was here, in the cold night talking to her. 

Bret paused his lips and stared at her for a while, finding her interesting and happy that he took the decision to talk to her, she was not that bad afterall, he thought. “I did not know that it would be this nice to talk to you,” he told her, gazing into her face.

Monalisa lowered her gaze as soon as their eyes met, feeling uncomfortable to look at his gorgeous face, blushing a little as he said it was nice talking to her. “Have you come to see Annabel… I think you should go and see her now because she would not like it if she saw you talking to me…. and besides, it’s so cold outside.” Monalisa stammered, gesturing for him to go into the house, afraid of what Annabel would do to her if she saw him talking to her, since they were standing in front of the house.

“I have not come to see Annabel, Monalisa, I have come here to see you…” Bret told her calmly, still gazing at her, he could see how uncomfortable she was and knew the reason for that.

“What?” Monalisa asked, peeking at him from under her lashes, surprised to hear him say that he had come to see her, and thought that he must be joking. “This must be a joke right?” she asked in a near trembling tone, wondering what he was up to. He cannot be here just to see her, no one has cared about her before, she said inwardly, still peering at him from under her lashes but skeptically this time.

“I know that this might sound crazy to you, but I want you to believe me…” Bret started but stopped for a moment to put his words right for her to understand him. “Look, I know that this is going to be hard for you to believe me but I have been thinking about you, I do not know the reason for that from the beginning but I realized that today when I tried to sleep but all I kept thinking about was you…” he said and paused again, seeing the shocked look on Monalisa’s face as she lifted her gaze to peer into his face this time.